


Meetings

by BlackwaterVial



Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-07
Updated: 2015-10-07
Packaged: 2018-04-25 03:04:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4944352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackwaterVial/pseuds/BlackwaterVial
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“We’ll meet again.” he said.<br/>“Right” Adam replied.</p>
<p>They never met again.</p>
<p>(spoilers for The Phantom Pain)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meetings

They first met in 1964. The Snake and the Ocelot. As soon as Adam saw him he knew he was special. They stood opposite each other, blue eyes meeting blue eyes, guns pointed and shoulders tensed. There was something about this man that Adam couldn’t quite put into words. Maybe it was the curiosity with which he regarded Adam. Not pity because of his age, not even arrogance. Just curiosity.

Some days and many obstacles later they stood opposite each other again, blue eyes meeting blue eye, guns pointed and shoulders tensed. The man across from him, _John_ , had a smile on his lips. Not sarcastic or malicious, just honest. It was then that Adam decided he would follow John anywhere.

“We’ll meet again!” Adam said.

Johns smile grew bigger.

\---

They met again some years after that, brought together by The Patriots. John had changed. His actions had hardened him and from time to time a cruel shadow passed over his face. Adam didn’t care. John still stood proud, if he felt regret and a longing for vengeance he didn’t show it. When he looked at Adam his face softened and Adam could still see that honest smile lingering in the corners of his mouth. Or maybe it was just his imagination. However it was, every day he spent with John he became more certain of one fact. He would give everything for him.

“Will we meet again?” Adam asked when John told him he was leaving because Zero went one step too far.

“Of course,” John answered.

\---

They met again in 1975. Adam’s heart skipped a beat when he saw John lying in bed, motionless, lifeless. It was a coma they told him. They didn’t know if he’d wake up. _When he’d wake up,_ Adam told himself. John would be all right. He always was.

Adam stayed at his side for 9 years.

“We’ll meet again,” he muttered, again and again.

\---

They met again in 1984. Adam entered the hospital room and John stood at the window, his thin frame leaned against the wall for support. Only years and years of acquired self-control prevented Adam from embracing his old friend. John turned and looked at Adam, his blue eye tired but so very alive. The corners of his mouth pulled up ever so slightly. Adam could feel his eyes burning and looked away. They didn’t have much time after that. The plan had already been set in motion. Some weeks later they stood on a collapsed bridge, Adam looking at John and John giving him a slight nod.

“We’ll meet again.” he said.

“Right” Adam replied.

They never met again

\---

The year was 1999. Adam felt nothing inside of him but emptiness. Everything he had done, everything he had become, all in vain. John was dead. Burned alive by his own son. All those years Adam had wished for nothing more than to see the man he loved so much again. To see John’s clear, blue eye, to see a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth ever so slightly. He never did and now there was nothing left in him but a distant feeling of regret. Had he just been as bold as he pretended to be back in 1964. Everything they could have been, all the lost opportunities rushed into his mind, nearly driving him insane.

He would never meet John again.

“Right…” he said.

\---

The year was 2003 and Adam knew exactly what he had to do. He was still alive, _John_ was still alive. Or at least in some state of living. The Patriots would pay for what they did to him and for what they continued to do to him. EVA agreed with Adam. The two of them sat together for a long time, talking, scheming, planning, until Adam knew his role and EVA hers. It was going to be hard, painful and exhausting but Adam didn’t care one bit. When he said he would do everything for John he meant it. So this was it. Sacrificing himself was a small price to pay for the life of the person he loved.

“We’ll meet again” EVA said.

“Yes,” Adam replied. “I’m sorry.”

She shook her head. “It’s alright. It’s for him.”

\---

The year was 2005 and for a short moment he thought he had John back. The hair, the voice, even the bandana looked just like him. But the eyes were different. Blue, but not quite as clear, not quite as familiar. There was no smile on the face of this Snake. He was the one who took John from him and Adam wanted to hate him. He didn’t. There was still too much of John in the person in front of him.

In the course of one day he lost his hand and John’s other son lost his life. It was all convenient.

“Soon, we’ll meet again…”

\---

The year was 2014 and Adam wasn’t himself anymore. He hasn’t been in a long time. Locked away in his own mind he watched the world burn. It was what he needed to do, he told himself over and over again. It would be worth it. Even as he looked down at EVA, mercilessly, unrelenting even as she shouted his name, he didn’t feel regret. This was what they both had agreed to. At some point along the way he realized that no matter how much they tried, how big their efforts, they would never meet John again. The only thing left for them to do was to carry on his dream and to bring him back somehow, no matter the cost.

The year was 2014 and Adam lay dying on a cold metal surface, the man who looked like John but wasn’t John bent over him. Adam was back in his own mind; his thoughts finally belonging to himself again. He knew he had succeeded. The system was destroyed, John was saved. That was all that mattered. Still Adam felt pain in his chest. Pain that he couldn’t meet John again. After everything he had done, he would still die alone so far, far away from the man he loved. At least he had fulfilled his purpose. His raison d’être. The only reason that made him carry on. He looked at the Snake in front of him and smiled, remembering the same situation from ages ago. His eyes burned but he was too weak to shed any more tears. So he used the last bit of strength he had remaining and lifted his hands into a gesture he hadn’t done in years.

“You’re…pretty...good…”

\---

He knew he was dead when he couldn’t feel pain anymore. The cold metal surface beneath him had vanished and the biting wind over the ocean had been replaced by a gentle breeze. He slowly opened his eyes. The sun burned a little too bright and the sky was a little too blue to be real. Next to him he saw a figure sitting in the grass, turning as she heard him move.

“There you are! I was wondering when you’d follow.” EVA said plainly, her long hair flying in the breeze and her face young, friendly.

“What…is this?” Adam was surprised at his own voice, remembering the familiar tone from so many years ago.

“I don’t know. Maybe this is _Outer Heaven._ ”

“What are we doing here?”

“Waiting. He should be here soon. There is nothing left for him in the old world.”

\---

He didn’t know what year this was. Time didn’t exist anymore. Adam and EVA had been sitting next to each other in silence for what felt like an eternity. Then, suddenly, there were footsteps behind them. EVA turned. Smiled. Adam looked at her in disbelief but she just nodded softly at him, and with a small jerk of her head told him to get up. He did. And as he turned he was faced with a blue eye, clear and familiar and an honest smile playing around his lips.

“So…we meet again.” John said.

Adam could feel tears streaming down his face.

“Right.” he replied.

**Author's Note:**

> Replaying MGS4 after TPP might have been a bad idea.


End file.
